1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to tilling systems and, more particularly, to a disc tilling system for use with a road grader in a mariner that improves consistency of ground processing while significantly reducing time and energy requirements.
2. Description of the Background
Farm groundbreaking equipment, which may be pulled by tractors, such as plows and discs, may be utilized to turn the soil at an even depth to prepare the soil for new planting. One problem encountered during this process is jamming or clogging of the plows and/or discs. Each time the plows, disks, and/or chisel plows jam, clog, or fill-up with weeds, grass, clay, dirt, and/or old crops, the groundbreaking equipment must be lifted out of the ground. To complete the job of preparing the ground, the tractor and equipment must pass multiple times over the same areas until the soil is pulverized uniformly. The jamming and/or clogging results in very significant lost time and increased energy costs.
In more detail, most farm groundbreaking equipment utilizes staggered shanks that support plows or discs, which penetrate the soil. The pulling and/or pushing load is distributed over the shanks. The plows and discs are often staggered so that subsequent plows or discs turn the soil into the furrow dug by the previous plow or disc.
In some cases, the ground, grass, and/or crop may be processed before plowing utilizing discs. By using discs before plowing, the grass, crop, and/or weeds are less likely to become caught in the shanks of the plows. After the ground is plowed, the ground is often rough and contains clods or clumps. At this stage of groundbreaking, discs may be utilized to pulverize the ground and to chop the grass, crops, and weeds. Otherwise, the grass, crops, and/or weeds are likely to jam the plow. Prior art discs pulled by tractors can usually be pulled over the ground without jamming, depending on the design. However, the depth of ground penetration is difficult to control. The depth of ground penetration is determined by factors such as gauge wheels used with the discs, the weight of the discs, added weights, the angle of the discs, plant density, clay/liquid/sand content of the soil, bumps, and/or the like. If the gauge wheel falls into a disk for a row, the cutting depths may vary with the depth of the furrow.
As discussed above, one of the disadvantages of the plow is that grass, old crops, and/or weeds may easily jam the plow rendering further operation poor or limited. If the plow is attached to the tractor, the plow may be lifted hydraulically and may be cleaned by backing up. However, if the plow is dragged behind with a mechanical lift, the plow is usually cleaned by hand.
A gauge wheel may be attached to a gang of discs to be positioned in a disc furrow to counteract side forces operating on other discs. As noted above, this may cause a varying depth of penetration due to variations in depth of the disc furrow. The forces acting on discs may be countered by the pulling hitch, the gauge wheels, the weight of the discs, and the angle of the disc gang. However, if the ground is hard, the disc force can be greater than the force provided by the hitch and gauge wheel causing the disc to follow a straight line and the gauge wheels to slide sideways whereby the disc do not cut into the ground. This causes the ground to be broken up at an uneven depth, and may leave weeds, grass, and/or old crops standing. To correct this skipping problem, the ground must be processed with the discs repeatedly. A disc tiller may have sets of discs that are oriented in different directions so that the cutting force in one direction is countered by each other.
In summary, using prior groundbreaking equipment, it is often necessary to pull the equipment over various parts of the field multiple times before a consistently desired farming surface is created. With a large field, the additional time required can be extensive.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,036,598, issued Apr. 7, 1936, to J. G. Miller et al., discloses a disc tiller unit clamped to the front of a grader blade. While the patent indicates the device is suitable for tilling roads, it is believed that the device is unsuitable for use in tilling fields for several reasons. For one reason, it is believed that tilling a typical farm field rather than a road will cause a rapid buildup of grass, weeds, old crops, mud, and/or other debris between the grader blade and the disc unit, which would prevent operation, and repeatedly require extensive cleaning. Thus, jamming and clogging is likely to be extensive in this design. This would appear to be very time consuming, perhaps to the point of making the device essentially unusable for the farming purposes. Thus, in many fields, this device is likely to have the same or much worse jamming or clogging problems than other prior art tillers and plows. Another problem relates to the clamping mechanism for securing the disc tiller to the grader blade, which is complicated and would appear to be time consuming, and may possibly damage the grader blade.
Consequently, there remains a long felt need for an improved tilling system that is not subject to the jamming or clogging problems of prior art tilling systems. Those skilled in the art have long sought and will appreciate the present invention, which addresses these and other problems.